Soundtrack to cook to: Bruno Mars' Unorthodox Jukebox. Alexander likes the song "Locked Out of Heaven."
Picture Catch Up...big time! Things have been pre-tty crazy around the Franses household. Let me give you a little timeline of the craziness and you'll understand why I've been tardy in my posts:
February 12 - We met with our realtor to toss around the idea of putting our home on the market.
February 23 and 24 - We decided to have our open houses this weekend! (So much for tossing around
the idea - we just went for it.)
February 24 - After a 3-way bidding war, we accepted a bid!
March 8 - We signed the purchase and sale for our home as well as the one that we found and fell in
love with.
April 15 - We move out of our current home.
April 16 - We move into our new home!
Can you see why I've been tardy in my posts? I've been packing like crazy! Oh yeah, and did I mention that during the first few weeks, we had two sets of visitors as well? Yup...fun with family and friends, but crazy box packing at the same time.
So here we go...time for a picture catch up:
 |
| Our cute little 4 month old! Stats: Weight: A healthy 17 lbs 8 oz (92nd percentile) Height: 26 inches (87th percentile) Head circumference: 46.2 cm (99th percentile) Abilities: He loves grabbing and holding onto anything and everything he sees (especially mommy's coffee cup). He gives raspberries when he's being playful AND when he's just about ready to have a meltdown. He's very talkative and expressive, is starting to roll over from belly to back, and is enjoying tummy time a little more each day. |
 |
| William, the cutie patootie, during his bath. |
William in action
 |
| William and mommy snuggle time. |
 |
| The little guy, all tuckered out. |
 |
| He's pretty much a happy-go-lucky baby (except for when he's hungry or tired...then watch out!) |
 |
| William at his 4 month check-up. |
 |
| He desperately wants to be a big boy. As soon as he turned 4 months, he started staring at us, longingly, as we were eating. You could tell that he wanted to take a big bite out of our food as well. So, we got out the high chair and he joined the family at the table. |
 |
| Mmmm! He loves chewing on his hands and anything that he can grab. He can get pretty juicy (covered in spit). |
 |
| Daddy and William playing around while Alexander watches some T.V. |
 |
| William loves looking at his big brother. |
 |
| I love his squishiness in this picture!! |
 |
| Lil' man, lounging in his daddy's lap. |
 |
| As we've been packing up, slowly but surely, I felt that it was a little bittersweet when we had to take down Alexander's animal wall decorations. I remember him standing up in his crib when he was just 1 year old and pointing to all of the animals. So, I had to get one last picture of Alexander in his crib with his animals. |
 |
| William is breaking in his new jogging stroller while his big brother Alexander tags along. Doesn't he look like a little teddy bear? |
 |
| Alexander stomped in a huge, black, sludgy puddle (because he loves to splash in puddles) and got his pants incredibly dirty. |
 |
| Our high school friends (and Joseph's friends since middle school) visited February 28 - March 3. We had such a great time hanging out and the boys absolutely loved playing with them as well. Thanks so much for coming, Uncle Andrew, Uncle Chris, and Auntie Aly! (And a big thank you to Auntie Aly for taking pictures because I am always running around like crazy and never remember to take pictures when visitors come.) This picture is of Uncle Andrew and Alexander wearing Uncle Andrew's IU jersey. BOOOOOO IU!! We bleed black and gold in this house! |
 |
| Uncle Andrew was a natural with the boys. |
 |
| Uncle Chris, Alexander, and Uncle Andrew cheering IU on. BOILER UPPPPPP!! |
 |
| Alexander snuggling with Uncle Andrew. Alexander really fell in love with Uncle Andrew. |
 |
| Uncle Andrew and Alexander cheering IU on. |
 |
| Uncle Chris and Alexander sporting IU's colors. |
 |
| I love Joseph's reaction to seeing Alexander dressed in Uncle Andrew's IU jersey (for those of you who don't know, IU is the rival university to Purdue - the university that Joseph and I attended). |
 |
| Uncle Andrew reading Alexander a book. Our friends were really great with the boys. |
 |
| Me, photo bombing Alyson and Chris. It was SO great to be able to get out with Joseph and our friends. I was telling my friends that it was so nice to feel like me again and to not feel like someone's "mommy" for once. We had a great night out on the town. Thanks so much for bringing us back to life, guys! |
 |
| Joseph, Me, Alyson, Chris, and Andrew. Great times with great friends. |
 |
| Joseph, Me, Chris, and Alyson. Thanks so much for taking pictures, Alyson!! |
 |
| Joseph and me doing our "Ode to Alexander" by giving our best "thumbs up" pose. Thanks to Auntie Aly, Alexander can now finally do "thumbs up" correctly. |
 |
| Auntie Aly who is now an official yoga instructor (you go, girl!!) doing some yoga with Alexander. |
 |
| Alexander loved doing yoga with his Auntie Aly. |
 |
| Joseph playing airplane with Alexander. |
 |
| Linda, William, Joseph, Elias, and Alexander. Linda and Elias visited us for their spring break from March 9 to March 16. It was so great to have family over, for the boys to play with their grandparents, and for me to have extra helping hands so that I could pack some boxes in preparation for the move. Thanks so much for watching the boys and making so many delicious meals!! |
Alexander found a trail of legos left by a naughty leprechaun
for St. Patrick's Day.
Alexander finally found the rainbow at the end of the trail.
 |
| Our little guy, playing in his jumparoo! |
 |
| He loves it just as much as Alexander did! |
 |
| William loves looking at his brother more than playing with his new toy. |
 |
| Our handsome, blue-eyed, little guy. |
 |
| Happy 4 months, big guy! |
 |
| Alexander wanted to join in on the picture as well. |
 |
| William, getting ready to enjoy his first bite of rice cereal. |
 |
| William getting his first bites of rice cereal. |
 |
| He looks like he likes it! (NOT). He'll get used to it. He actually really likes carrots and sweet potato (and not so much peas). |
 |
| Alexander, loving his fruit. |
 |
| Alexander, can you do "thumbs up"? |
 |
| Cha-chaaaaa!! |
 |
| On March 16, our feisty dachshund Oscar turned 7 years old. For every birthday (and half birthday) we get Oscar a burger with cheese and mushrooms for his birthday "cake." Here's Oscar's birthday lunch "cake." |
 |
| Alexander insisted on singing happy birthday to Oscar and blowing out the candle for him. |
 |
| Oscar is waiting very patiently for his birthday burger. |
 |
| Alexander blew the candle out. |
 |
| Oscar loved his birthday burger. |
 |
| These brothers loved sharing this moment together. |
 |
| Joseph, feeding William. |
 |
| William looks like he thoroughly enjoys this experience. |
 |
| William was not a huge fan of peas. |
 |
| Alexander loves fruit. |
 |
| Take a can of rinsed chick peas, dry them on some paper towels, and place them on a silicone mat or parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the chick peas for 45 minutes. |
 |
| Then remove the chick peas from the oven and toss them in 1 tsp cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, 1/4 tsp sea salt, and 2 tsp of honey. |
 |
| Once the chickpeas are coated, you can bake the chick peas for another 10 minutes in order to make the chick peas more caramelized. These were absolutely a delightful and protein-packed snack. Delish! |
 |
| Alexander, checking out the "special snack" of the day after his nap. |
 |
| And now for the cheesy zucchini quinoa!! So freaking delicious that I actually doubled the recipe. Pour 2 cups of quinoa into 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth. Once the broth and quinoa are boiling, put a cover over the quinoa for 20 minutes. Then, mix in 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese and the shredded zucchini, and VOILA! You have a delicously cheesy and nutritious side dish! |
 |
| A fluffy, cheesy, and delicious side dish that we served along side steak. Absolutely delicious and a sneaky way to get some zucchini into your diet! |
 |
| William enjoying some tummy time. |
 |
| He's so beautiful. |
 |
| Alexander on one of our walks with Oscar. |
 |
| Alexander doing his best impression of Kate Winslet from Titanic. (No, he's never seen this movie, it just reminded me of that so I thought I'd say that.) |
 |
| Our big boy William, holding his own bottle! |
 |
| Look, ma! Two hands! |
 |
| We tried to transition William to sleeping in his pack and play on the flat surface. Unfortunately his reflux is still so bad that he has to sleep at an incline. |
William eating his first solids!
 |
| Alexander kissing and snuggling on his little brother William. |
 |
| Oscar, checking on his brother William. |
Our little cutie patootie
 |
| William playing with a yarn ball at his music class. We go every Friday and he absolutely loves it! |
 |
| Little William, enjoying some tummy time and watching the yarn balls roll. |
*Phew!* Finally all caught up! It's been a great, but crazy busy, month! I can't wait to move into our new place.
It's also been a big month because I announced that I am no longer returning back to teaching for a while. It was quite a difficult decision for me to make, but it's necessary for our family right now. Starting in June, Joseph will be completing his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and I will basically be a single mom because Joseph will be so busy. I'm looking forward to being with the boys full-time, but I will definitely miss the classroom as well.
That's all the time I have for now, and apologies for the late update. Until next time...
Love and kisses,
Nikki
No comments:
Post a Comment